St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-04-10

For some time matters have chung fire, -
notwithstanding the efforts of Col.
T.. Percy Weadon, but everything
has now been arranged satsfac-
torlly. and work will commence at once
The site to be occupied by the building has
already been made public. The ground is
owned by Hon. w. P. Murray. who is also
a principal stakeholder in the enterprise,
and in whose honor it is to be dedicated
the Murray Opera House." The house
will have frontage on the south side of
Eighth street, between Robert and Mime
sofa, of IS feet, with courts ON either side,
and will be 155 feet deep. 1t will be
six stories high, of Anderson red pressed
brick, with terra Gotta trimmings, and the
design of the front will be fac smile of an
East Indian temple. The special act passed
by the last legislature concerning the con-
Strection of theaterS will enfore all additional
expense of S25. 600, and the building and
theater will be absolutely fire-proof. The
general style of decorations and furnish
ings in the interior will be oriental, after
the fashion of an Indian temple.
The main entrance will be thirty feet
wide and will be constructed somewhat to
the left of the center of the building. 1t
will debouche into an open court with a
Will COHtdiH dill dTG ulSDldy,
and this court will open into the foyer of
the theater. Leading from the foyer into
the basement will be winding stairways on
either side opening into a gentIemen's
smoking room and ladies' music room.
These rooms will be provided with attend
ants and handsomely furnished. The en-.
tire
SEATING CAPACITY
of the theater will be 1900. 1t is arranged
after the manner of the Metropolitan opera
house in New York. There will be twelve
proscenium boxes and twenty loges, and an
equal number of Partisan boxes at the
opening of the foyer. These boxes will be
what Gel Weadon calls ''Iittle oriental
temples" The proscenium arch and sound
ing board will be of iron. with relief work,
filled in with cathedral glass Jewels, which
will reflect the incandescent lights with
dazzling effect. The stage will be forty
feet deep, seventy-two feet to the gird-iron,
Tor seventy-two feet high) and fifty feet be-
tween the fly galleries. There will be a
scenery and property room built adjacent
TO the theater, and the upper front of the
building will be fitted up for club rooms.
Incandescent lamps will be used for light
ing and the building will be steam heated.
In compliance with the rigid law the drop
Cui1diA Wall NC VI Stttl, duu tLl0 uOOrS
and tlling of tire-proof material.
There will be twenty exits from the
theater, on both sides and in front BY an
automatic invention of j. NJ. Wood, the
architect, lever placed either in the
private office OF in the lobby, controls the
opening of all these exit doors instantan-
eously. Another new feature will be in
dispensing with the ''fy-man' in the rigg-
ing. and the operation of the curtains by
automatic appliances. No cost will be
spared to make it a model theater, and if
the plans are carefully carried out it will be
finer than anything yet built west of New
York.
Hon. W. P. Murray will be the president
of the stock company which is to build
the theater. Upon its completion it will
be leased and operated by Messrs. Sackett
& Virgins and j. M. Wood, who are also
stockholders. The management will de-
yolye upon Mr.. Wood, who will make his
residence in st. Paul Mr.. Woods reputa-
ton as architect and builder of theaters
is well known, and he has SUBJ
mitted plans for nearly every
amusement house which has been
built in the West in the past ten years. He
is also an experienced manager. The new
theater will play nothing but firSt-class
attractions. and will open in conjunction
with the Hennepin Avenue theater in Min
neapolis on Aug. 20, with one of the lead